The War for Wonderland
by wondertross
Summary: This is from SyFy's Alice. What if not everything had gone as smoothly as it did? What if there were still those loyal to the Queen? What if Alice started a war? Alice finds her way back, and nothing is as she left it, no one is the same
1. You Can't Go Home Again

Title:

Chapter 1: You Can't Go Home Again

Disclaimer: I own none of them, or the idea, but I love SyFy for providing the it.

Author's Note/Mini Rant: Okay, don't get me wrong, I loved this version of Alice, or at least, I loved most of it. But it feel to anyone else like they ran out of time? They were building to political coup, to war, havoc erupting upon Wonderland and then just.... nope. Somehow I just don't see a bunch of speechifying by Alice, and a few freed Oysters is going to make this society, which has basically become addicted to our emotions to sit up and go 'oh yeah, the Queen isn't a good person, we don't like her anymore, let's just follow this chick now and give up our addiction.' So this is basically my take on how I think it could have gone down, given a few extra hours or I don't know... a series type thing. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

--

Alice stood, alone amongst the crowd of Oysters, those that hadn't been returned home yet. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, clutching uneasily at her hands. She wasn't sure why exactly. Jack had the ring, his mother had been dethroned and was currently cooling her heels in a nice cold cell, the Oysters had been freed, and it seemed, for all intense and purposes, that the good guys had one the day. She should be feeling good right now, not anxious. But then, it all seemed to good to be true, too much a fairy tale, an ironic feeling really, considering her current location.

Maybe it had nothing to do with the outcome at all, and more the circumstances. Her father for example. She'd only just gotten him back, and now... a lump welled in her throat and tears in her eyes, and Alice gave a firm shake of her head to banish the thoughts. No, this wasn't the time for that. There would be plenty of time when she had to explain to her mother. There was that lump again. Alice shook her head once more. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that she was leaving this incredible place, the incredible people she'd met along the way. Jack, the once future, now reigning King, Charlie the cowardly White Knight, who came through in a pinch, and Hatter...

Hatter, who was always with her, even when she lost her path. Hatter, who took bullets for her, and rescued her, and helped her find her way. Hatter her dear, sweet... friend? Well, that was just a whole other batch of butterflies, that was. She wondered if he'd make it in time to see her off. She knew they were busy, all three of them. The Queen still had her loyalists, the ones that would kill and be killed for her service, and those like Mad March, who liked to kill just because. They were out to make trouble for Jack's new Wonderland. Already one such group of Loyalists had made an attempt to free the Queen. And she was helpless to aid them. She certainly didn't feel like 'The Alice of Legend', much more like 'the Alice Who Just Showed Up One Day, Got In A Lot of Trouble, But Managed to Do Some Good.' Yes, that was definitely a more appropriate title, as far as she was concerned. That, or maybe, 'Just Alice'.

She was still deep in thought, wandering tiny circles, when she noticed Charlie parting his way through the crowd. "Charlie!" she called, a genuine smile flitting across her lips. Knight and girl embraced, and Alice breathed deeply the scent of him, like horses, and campfires and pine. She would dearly miss him.

"I was afraid I would miss you," Charlie told her as they pulled apart.

"I was worried too. But I knew you would try, and I know you're busy now, Royal Advisor."

"Just a title, just a title," he mumbled, a pink hue coloring his cheeks. Alice knew he was secretly pleased.

"May I have a word with Alice, Sir Knight?" She couldn't help it, Jack's voice still made her heart jump, just a little. Jack looked exceptionally regal in red, especially with his small armament of guards on his flank. But that hair... she definitely preferred it the way it was before, longer and darker, always threatening to flop into his eyes. Alice resisted the urge to reach up and touch it. That wouldn't be dignified.

Their conversation was short, but it left her more confused than ever. He offered her the ring! Hell, he'd basically just offered her the Kingdom. And to think that only a week ago her she'd been worried about finding full time employment. Luckily, whatever temptation she felt passed quickly and she found herself turning down the offer. She couldn't stay, couldn't do that to her mother. Besides, she wasn't sure what she wanted, but she thought she had a clue, for once. She hugged Jack as well, longer than Charlie, with the familiarity of old lovers, but she was almost certain that was all past tense.

Jack went to the Looking Glass with the ring to start it up. Oysters... humans, she reminded herself, started filing through. Starting with the two young sisters. The man in the white lab outfit told them all to breathe, then pushed the unceremoniously through the mirror, clearly one man happy to have them all going back to their own world. Her turn was coming. She wrung her hands again. She had to see him before she left, if only to know...

"Hatter!" She recognized him there, hanging back by the doors. She thought for a moment that it looked like he'd been considering leaving. At the sound of his name however, he turned on a boot heel and strode toward her, a smile breaking wide across his face.

Truth was, he almost had left. Walking through the doors, seeing her with Jack and the ring. It was almost too much. Then she'd hugged him, and he felt his heart sink deep into the pit of his stomach. It was probably being digested right then, that would at least explain the sick feeling he was having. And they'd embraced, held each other, and he saw the adoration in her face. Whether it was adoration for her once and again boyfriend, or just a new King, he wasn't sure, nor did he want to find out. He'd said it before, she'd forget him. He'd become just 'What's His Name?' to her, so he made to leave. But then she'd called his name, and it drew him back in.

"I hadn't seen you... in a while," Alice said lamely. "Didn't think you'd get here before I left."

"Well suppose I was... trying... not to... uh, think about it," the last words came in a rush. She was looking at him then, her eyes pleading silently for him to say anything. But he wouldn't ask her to stay, it was too selfish. She had family to get back to, and Wonderland was far too dangerous in the moment. Political overthrows rarely went so smoothly, and he figured they were only at the tip of the iceberg.

_I can't stay,_ Alice told herself. But if only he would ask. Ask her to come back even, after a while, after she could explain it to her mom. The words fell out of her mouth before she realized it. "Do you want me to stay?"

_Yes, of course I do. _"No, course not," he said with a laugh. "I'm sure you've had your fill of Wonderland for a while."

That was it, slap to the face with words. He didn't want her to stay. She tried to cover it, tried once more to give him an opening. "You could always visit my world. Once things have settled here, of course."

"Sure, we could do pizza," he nodded, all the while feeling like someone ought to be kicking him in the ass. Pizza? What was wrong with him? Say something else, anything else!

Then there was a loud crack from outside the doors of the Mirror Room. Hatter instinctively tensed. Gunshot. Alice's eyes flew wide. It was followed by more, two, three, five... the shots got more frequent. They were louder now. Humans and people of Wonderland began to panic, scurrying around the room in a tizzy. Jack's guards, all dressed in back, rushed toward the front of the room. Another shot, this time from one of Jack's men.

Hatter shoved Alice behind him with one arm, drawing his own pistol. Around them, people started to scream. Glass shattered. The slow, steady procession of people through the mirror turned into a panicked rush for their salvation. And then there was a tug on her arm, pulling her away from Hatter, toward the mirror. "No!" she cried. "Hatter!"

He looked for her, and his eyes were pained. Then he nodded, and she realized it wasn't to her at all. She looked back, over her shoulder. Jack. Hatter was nodding to Jack. His eyes met hers once more, and then he was gone, rushing for the doors with his gun, swallowed up in the throng. No, no, she wouldn't let them do this. Alice writhed in Jack's grip, but he kept a hold on her, wheeling her to face him.

"Alice, you must leave," Jack told her seriously.

"No." She was staring at the spot Hatter had disappeared.

"You must," he said again, pressing something into her hand. She glanced down. The ring. That blasted ring. "Keep it safe, please. Wonderland is depending on you. This cannot fall back into the hands of our enemies. I will send someone for it soon, but until then, please. With you, in your world, the mirror will remain open."

"But..." he ignored her, hustling her up the stairs toward the Looking Glass.

"Go Alice."

She paused, fear filling her up, making her freeze. The explosion at the doors rocked her on her feet, and Jack pulled her down. Glass flew everywhere. The fireball rolled upward, licking at the walls. From beneath Jack's arm she saw people fall, unmoving. She didn't see Hatter. Alice stood, ready to rush past him, but Jack was ready. He pushed her, shoved her back into her own world, as his fell apart around his ears.

And then she was falling, so far and fast. She forgot to breathe. Alice came to a jarring stop on the concrete, scraping her arms and legs. And everything went dark.

--

Chapter 1

Well? Should I continue? Good premise? I really was just unsatisfied with everything getting wrapped up in such a pretty bow. This feels more appropriate to me, what do you think?


	2. Truth in the Pudding

Chapter 2:

Author's Note: Umm... wow. That response was crazy! Thanks so much guys. I just thought this would be an interesting way to go. I do warn, most of the time I work two jobs, and have marginal time to write, but I will finish, promise. Please just be patient with me.

--

The smell reached her first, medicinal, rubbing alcohol and iodine and the slightly sweet smell made by trying to cover sickness. It was wrong. She felt the stiff papery fabric against her skin, thin sheets tucked about her legs. She hated tucked in sheets, and it didn't quite register at first why they would be tucked in now. Alice shifted uncomfortably on the thin mattress.

A hand slipped around her own, fingers intertwining, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "Hatter?" the roughness of her voice surprised her.

"Honey? Alice it's mom."

_Mom?_

"Open your eyes Alice."

Though she felt confused, Alice tried to do what her mother asked. It was hard though, like her eyelids weighed more than usual. Fluorescent lights assaulted her corneas as her eyelids fluttered open. Alice winced, pressing her head back into her pillow as if she could somehow get away from it. After she blinked a few times the lights became more bearable. "Mom where am I?"

"The hospital Alice. You were unconscious when I found you. I was so scared."

"You found me?" Alice questioned. The hospital, that made sense, the smells, the sounds, the highly irritating needle in the back of her hand. "How long was I gone?"

"Almost an hour," he mother informed her. "You ran after Jack, and when you didn't come back I got worried. What happened?" Worry seeped through the calm exterior her mother was obviously trying to express.

"An hour?" Alice repeated disbelievingly. "That's not possible," she whispered. She'd been in Wonderland for days. Another thought struck her then, and she hastily pulled her right arm out from under the covers. She turned her hand over, brow furrowing as she stared. It wasn't there. The green mark, from the light on the Scarab. It wasn't there. No.

"The ring," she asked quickly, panic creeping into the edges of her voice. "Mom, what about the ring?"

Carol shook her head. She didn't understand. With everything that had happened, her daughter was worried about some ring? She hadn't even mentioned Jack. "You still had it with you honey, in your hand when I found you."

Alice shot upright in bed. She'd promised Jack she'd look after it. Promised to keep it safe with her. "And now? Where is it now? Do you still have it?"

Puzzled, Carol nodded. "Of course," she twisted in her chair, bending over to pick up the bag at her feet, "it's here, in my purse."

"Give it to me," Alice demanded, holding out her hand. She didn't want her mother to have it. Carol pulled the ring from her bag, and Alice snatched it from her hand, immediately sliding it on a finger. The ring was dangerous, having it was dangerous. She couldn't put her mother at risk like that. She'd already lost her father. She stared at the ring on her hand for a long moment, till her hand started to shake. Tears filled her eyes. "Oh mom," she breathed, the events of the last few days suddenly hitting her, "he's gone." Her shoulders shook as a sob racked her body.

"Who's gone?" This was all very strange. Perhaps she should call in one of the doctors to look at Alice.

"Daddy," her daughter cried. The tears fell fast and free now. Brow furrowing, Carol gave a small shake of her head, and did the only thing a mother could. She hugged her daughter, and Alice hugged her back, crying all the while.

--

Alice spent two days in the hospital. It felt infinitely longer than that. A sedentary existence did not lend well to Alice's demeanor. Bed bound and bored out of her mind, she was left with little to do but think, and dream. Idle hands were the devil's plaything, but and idle mind was her own worst enemy.

While she was awake Alice spent hours staring at the ring on her right hand, turning it around and around her finger. Such a small thing, to cause so much trouble. And when she slept, her mind wandered in Wonderland, with all those she left behind. The dreams usually began pleasantly enough, riding through the fields with Charlie, watching Jack assume the throne, Hatter and his crazy hat tricks, but it never stayed that way for long. Always the gunshots, always the fireball. A hundred times over she watched them all die, watched the world fall down. She woke up screaming more than once.

Alice knew she was causing her mother grief, it was plainly written upon her face. She rarely left Alice's bedside, and was often the one to shake her back awake when a nightmare took hold. Alice tried to explain. But even as the story unfolded, she could sense her mother's agitation, her anxiety.

"Alice, it was just a dream," she had said. And Alice knew that to her, that's all it would ever be, because that's all she could allow it to be.

But Alice knew differently. It was too real, she remembered it too vividly, _felt_ it too vividly. Yet she didn't press the issue, knowing it would only upset her mother. Perhaps even earn her a trip to a mental health specialist. That's what happened to people who insisted that they saw things that weren't real, right?

"Maybe you're right," she'd conceded. Yet even as she quelled her mother's anxiousness, her own grew by leaps and bounds. It had been two days, and no word from Jack, or anyone else, and stuck in a hospital bed there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. She wanted to know that they were all right, that they'd managed to escape the firefight unscathed. She wanted to talk to someone. She wanted to talk to Hatter.

Alice was released from the hospital on a Thursday. It was raining, the sky heavy and dark. Her mother came to get her and drove them both home. Home, she wondered what it would feel like now. Truth be told, Alice was starting to have doubts. Could it all have been a dream. She'd heard nothing from Jack's man, seen nothing unusual. Perhaps her mother was right, and the emotional trauma of seeing Jack kidnapped, plus the large bump on her head, had attributed to some wild fantasy. Her head argued the point; her heart ignored it.

Alice shouldered her small bag and headed up the stairs to their apartment. They lived on the third floor, and as they neared the landing, Alice was hit by a sudden unease. "Mom wait," she ordered softly, dropping her bag at her feet.

Moving quietly, Alice made her way across the landing and peered around the corner, down the hallway that led to their apartment. At the end of the corridor, the door hung slightly ajar. "Call the police," she hissed to her mother over her shoulder.

"Alice wait! What are you doing?" Too late. Alice was already making her way down the hall, eyes peeled on the door. They were after the ring, she knew it. She just wanted to catch them in the act; she wanted answers.

The lights were on inside the apartment, sending a bright triangle of light out into the hall. Alice waited there for a moment, blinking to let her eyes accommodate the brighter light inside. She slipped inside. The living room was in shambles. Books lay strewn about the floor, the couches had been overturned and pillows had been slashed, stuffing strewn about over the hardwood. The kitchen looked much the same, broken dishes and drawers yanked out of place. There was no movement. Alice had just started to let herself relax when there was a thud from one of the bedrooms, her bedroom.

A man appeared at the threshold of her door. Their eyes met, and they both froze. Alice's eyes registered the handle of a gun sticking out of a shoulder holster the second before he began to reach for it. She turned on her heel and bolted, down the steps into the living room, making a flying dive over the back of the couch even as she heard the gun go off behind her. Feathers flew into the air as the slug struck the upholstery.

From outside the apartment, Alice heard her mother's hysterical scream, nearly incoherent. "Alice!!!"

Alice remained pressed flat to the floor, till she heard the intruder turn on his heel and run for the door. He didn't want to get caught, with her mother raising the alarm. Alice heard the door crash into the wall. She flung herself upward, scrambling to get her feet beneath her. Then she hurdled the couch, arms pumping at her sides as she took off after him.

Carol was crouched down halfway between the apartment door and the stairwell. The man had raced by her without pausing. Alice darted after him, but her mother jumped into the middle of the corridor, blocking her way. She grabbed Alice's shoulders with both hands. "No!" she cried. Alice barely heard her. She was staring at the man who had just reached the stairway, the man in a black suit with a white shirt, a black club adorning each side of the collar.

Alice made one more surge to after him, but Carol held her back. "No!" her mother yelled again, angrily this time. "You are not going after him, do you hear me? Not again!" Then, with a shove in the direction of their apartment, she released her daughter.

Once inside the apartment, Carol slammed the door. "What the hell is the matter with you?" she bellowed. Enough was enough. Alice had been acting strangely since the moment she woke up in the hospital and she wanted an explanation.

Pacing her way around the living room, Alice didn't even bother to stop as she answered, "Nothing." She knew she sounded like a petulant child, but she didn't care. Things couldn't be good if an agent of the Queen was ransacking her apartment. Did it mean that her attack on the Looking Glass had been successful? Could Jack have been captured, killed? And Hatter... he was near the doors when the blast hit...

"I would hardly call rushing after an armed robber nothing," her mother argued, arms set firmly across her chest. "It's reckless, dangerous, and totally unlike you."

It occurred to Alice in that moment that recently she had been part to many other dangerous and reckless activities, but she didn't figure that avenue of argument likely to help her cause. She sat heavily on the arm of the overturned couch and murmured to herself. "I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?'"

"Alice," her mother dropped to her knees before her, grabbing both her hands. "You're my daughter, Alice, and you are the same today as you were yesterday. You saw something terrible, experienced something terrible, but you are still Alice." She could see her mother was near tears.

"Yes, of course I am," Alice was quick to assure her. "I'm sorry mom, I don't mean to make you worry." That, for the moment at least, seemed to satisfy her mother. After that, Carol made a call to the city PD, and two uniformed officers were dispatched to their apartment. The policemen dutifully took note of the state of the apartment, wrote down Alice and Carol's statement, and asked if anything of note appeared to be missing, jewelry, electronics, but of course nothing had been. Alice rubbed her thumb across the top of the ring. This is what he had been after. But he wasn't going to get it.

Less than an hour later, the police officers left, Alice's description of the intruder firmly in hand. But they wouldn't find him, since he didn't actually exist in this world. They assured her mother that they would send an extra patrol or two in the next week. The next day, Carol called a locksmith and installed an extra heavy bolt in the door.

An entire week passed, and there was no word. Though several times walking to and from work Alice felt eyes on her back. Once she thought she caught a glimpse of a man in a black suit. Yet Alice didn't dare mention anything to her mother. The situation had placed a definite strain on their relationship, and she couldn't bare to make it worse.

Not even her dojo felt familiar to her anymore, and she found herself distant and distracted while teaching. The only thing that helped her was spending a few extra hours at the gym, exercising away her nervous energy. She was frustrated. She tended to hit things when frustrated. It had made being a martial arts instructor an ideal job for her. Every night was a twisted new nightmare. She was exhausted, and cranky, and anxious.

Midway into the second week, Alice's frayed nerves got the best of her, and she decided to take matters into her own hands. If news from Wonderland wouldn't come to her, she would go to it. Jack had told her that the ring kept the Looking Glass active while in her world. Now she just had to find the portal back.

If at first Alice thought finding the way back into Wonderland would be easy, she was soon re-enlightened. She searched the warehouse where she had gotten through the first time high and low with no luck. No mirror, and no sign that anyone had been through the area in quite a while. Other warehouses in the area were deserted, and Alice began a systematic inspection of those as well. When her search yielded yielded zero results, she decided on a different tact.

The cork board that had once held a world map, pin holed with thumb tacks of everywhere her father wasn't, was replaced by a street map of the city. Buying every news publication within the city limits, Alice scoured the pages for reports on people gone missing, and kept tabs with the police as well. Carol often found her daughter surrounded by fanned out newspapers, articles marked with yellow and pink highlighter. Clusters of pins soon began to color the map on the wall. Alice took to keeping notes of the disappearances on a legal pad. Carol took to calling her sister in Tallahassee.

As the weeks passed, Alice's obsession grew. Alice had become a hermit, rarely leaving the house, except to work, and the rare occassion she went to scout a potential Looking Glass portal location. She'd gone out three times, each one as unsuccessful and frustrating as the one before. Sleep became only one more thing standing between her and Wonderland. Dark circles colored her eyes.

One month, then two, and finally nearly three, before the pattern became evident before her eyes. Three days. Every three days the Queens men came into the world and took a new batch of people. Young, old, male, female, it didn't seem to matter. The locations of the disappearances varied, never enough in one area to be noticed, but the forrest like circle of red push pins surrounding the East Wharf on the opposite side of the city was unmistakeable. "It's there," Alice muttered to herself, staring at the map, "it has to be." Glancing at her wrist, Alice checked the date on her watch. The fourteenth. Tomorrow then.

The next night, after eleven, Alice dressed. No jumper dress this time. Instead she donned boots, olive colored cargo pants, secured with a thick leather belt, black tank top, bright blue over-shirt and her dark brown leather bomber jacket. She set her long, dark tresses back in a french braid, the thick plait falling between her shoulders. She didn't know what to expect, but she planned to be ready.

Alice had never been an overly large fan of guns, though she could shoot one reasonably well if the situation required it. Instead, she outfitted herself with other means of protection, sliding a four inch knife into a small sheath on her belt. Then Alice knelt beside the small, knee high oak case, sitting just off to the side of her bed. Inside, was a polished black box. Alice lifted it out of the case and set it behind her on her bed. She lifted the box lid with a kind of reverence. She hadn't used the white oak Tonfa in several years, since she'd attained her black belt, but the wood still felt familiar to her hand. She slid them securely into a small black back pack, in which she'd already packed a change of clothes.

Alice tiptoed down the hall, not daring to flick on the lights. Her mother slept with the door open, habit ever since they'd had Dinah. She paused in the kitchen, stuffing what little room was left in her bag with non perishable food, canned soup and granola bars mostly. She slung the bag over her shoulder, stopping at the edge of the kitchen. She tapped the edge of a white envelope against the granite countertop. She'd gone back and forth for the past two days on whether or not to leave the note. She hated to worry her mother unnecessarily.

Who knew how long she would be gone for? Hell, Alice wasn't even one hundred percent positive she would even be able to get through to Wonderland that night. And the last time, nearly a week in Wonderland had accounted to no more than an hour in her world. She might be back before Carol even woke in the morning. Alice shook her head. Somehow, this time, she felt like she was going to be gone much longer than a mere hour. With a last look down the hall, Alice set the envelope on the counter, and crept out the front door.

Inside the envelope, Alice's message read: _Mom, I'm sorry to be leaving like this, with no word or warning. Just know that I am doing what I must, to become the person I wish to be. I promise that I will come back to you from a place I've been to before. You will see me again, much sooner than I will see you. Be safe. I love you. Alice._

--

Alice managed to hail a cab, half a dozen blocks from her place, to take her the rest of the way to the East Wharf. She quickly threw a few bills at the driver when they arrived and hopped out, pocketing the rest of the cash. Little pieces of paper, meaningless. Hatter's words sprang unbidden into her head.

Alice watched the cab roll away, the red taillights disappearing from view, took a deep breath, and marched onward. This part of the city was rundown, half abandoned, and the occasional operating streetlight she happened upon, popped and hissed as if in protest, its light flickering and weak.

The night was cool, the air heavy with moisture, the taste of salt water dancing on her tongue. She could hear the bell tolling out in the middle of the harbor, and the roll of not too distant waves striking the docks.

She happened upon them quite by accident, a small group of black suits unloading a large white van like the one that had grabbed Jack so many months earlier. Alice rounded the corner of a building, saw the van and immediately darted back into the shadows to wait. It wouldn't do to be seen, no, not at all. A group of eight filed quietly out of the van, all quite in a daze. Alice's heart hammered in her chest. She wanted to help them, to run out and fight, but the odds were against her. If she fought them, and got through, it wouldn't be long before the Queen realized she was back in Wonderland. If she fought them and lost, she could be a prisoner, or worse, lose track of them again.

The suits gathered their charges and began to usher them through a set of double doors into a storehouse. Only when the last suit vanished beyond the doorway did Alice dare move. She stayed close to the buildings, lest someone might see her from a window, and tiptoed up to the door. Hand on the handle, she waited, and listened. It was quiet. She slipped inside, straining to follow soft footfalls through the dark building. Right down a hallway, then left to a set of stairs. Down they went.

The footfalls in front of her stopped, and Alice slowed, creeping forward. Then she saw it, the large mirror, rimmed in gold. On her finger the ring gave a soft thrum of vibration. She looked down at it, startled. She'd never noticed the vibration before, but then, the only two times she'd worn the ring close to the Looking Glass, she'd been rather preoccupied.

They pushed the first human through the mirror. Alice felt sick at herself for not acting, not doing something. But her guilt slammed headlong into her better sense. She might be able to do something for these eight, or she might be able to do something for them all. She forced herself to wait. After the last suit went through, Alice waited a full two minutes longer. Then she set her bag down, and withdrew her Tonfa. Slipping the bag again over her back, she gripped the polished wood firmly in her hands, feeling the familiar press of their weight against her forearms. No matter what lay on the other side for her, she was ready. Then Alice strode up to the mirror, the ring now humming crazily on her finger, and she stepped through.

--

Chapter 2

Hope you all liked this as much as the first, though I know their was no Hatter, sad day. But he will be in ensuing chapters, i promise, love the character way too much to not utilize him in a big way. You reviewers are amazing, please keep it up!!


	3. Mock Turtle

Chapter 3:

A/N: You guys rock, and I will try to keep updates coming regularly. I do also have another fic to finish, so I will be working on that as well. I appreciate that you all like my continuing kick ass Alice, and I promise I have not forgotten Hatter! Who could?

--

This time around, Alice managed a slightly more graceful landing than her last two endeavors through the Looking Glass, mostly because this time she was prepared for the rushing fall, and sudden stop at the end. That is to say, at any rate, that she managed to land squarely on her backside, a position marginally more dignified than her face.

She didn't waste time pondering it, however, instead leaping to her feet, eyes sweeping all around. It took only a moment for her to register that she was once again in the Mirror Room, the very same room she'd travelled back to her world from three months prior, and that she was alone. There were no signs of any of the suits, or the Oysters, (Alice supposed she could call them that once again) they had taken. She relaxed her grip on her Tonfa, swinging the oak batons around and sliding them to rest in her belt.

A small part of her was gripped by disappointment. She'd almost expected him to be waiting for her, like he had been so many times before. Then she snorted, utterly aware of the ridiculousness of her own wish. "Right, he should just know I'm coming, and be waiting. Like my own private knight in brown leather and... err... stripey pants."

After giving herself the briefest moment to wallow, Alice allowed herself a few minutes to get her bearings. The room was familiar, but barely. It was dark, a thick layer of grime and dust saturating every surface, nook, and cranny. The marble floor had cracked, a long, jagged scar marring the tile across the whole length of the room. Glass had broken out of every door, and a few hung crookedly from their hinges. Even the mirror itself was coated in dust, except for a swath that looked like it had been wiped down by a hand not too long before.

"The places we leave, are rarely the same as those we come back to," she muttered to herself, hands on her hips. "And when we do come back, it is inevitable that we wish them to be as we remember, as they were."

Outside, wind whistled through the broken doors, a stiff, cold gust striking her face, and she allowed herself to look back over her shoulder. The Looking Glass could take her back, but even home wasn't home anymore. She was torn, stretched out on a rack between two worlds. Mother living in one, and a father who had lived and died in the other, and Alice straddling them both, looking for balance on a razor's edge. She couldn't go back, not without knowing the fates of her friends, so she moved in the only sensible direction left to her. Forward.

--

The city had been largely abandoned the last time Alice had been in Wonderland, but now it seemed even more so. Winter, or whatever season it might be, had fallen, and the city was caked in flakes of ice, dripping and shining under a gray sky. Nothing grew, nothing breathed. Stretching out before her eyes was the large expanse of water between the city and what had once been the Queen's casino. It too lay frozen, quiet.

Alice knew the path down, but with each step closer to the edge she took, her own breathing roared louder in her ears. She felt like she was trying to walk on cranberry sauce legs, the kinds that plopped out of the can on Thanksgiving and quivered for minutes on end by its own volition. Cranberry sauce like that only looked solid, really it was very soft indeed. She wished once more that Hatter stood, stalwart at her side, wished she could feel the strength of his hand take her own, so she could focus on twinkling eyes rather than an interminable fall.

Alice shook her head, banishing such thoughts from her brain. What good would it do her to fantasize? None. She was no damsel, and there would be no rescue, not from this. Breathing deeply once, she took a step, then another, and refused to look as the world dropped away from her right side. Eventually the stairs appeared, drawing her down a level and back inside, a fact for which she was grateful.

Much as she remembered the city being quiet the last time she'd been in Wonderland, this time she could have heard crickets, only there were no crickets. There was hardly a sound at all, and certainly not any made by people. But still, she kept one hand on a Tonfa, eyes peeled for anyone at all, and especially anyone decked out in playing card paraphernalia. Down one level, then two, then three, and still not a sight or sound of another living being.

The familiar swish of grass beneath Alice's booted feet was more of a relief than she would have liked to admit. With a deep sigh, Alice started winding her way between buildings toward the lake's edge. She'd only gone a hundred or so yards when she heard the soft rap of many footfalls approaching. Alice ducked into a doorway and crouched, heart beginning to hammer in her chest. A host of men ensconced in black marched around the corner of the next building. If they looked to their right they would surely see her, obscured in shadow or not. Each second ticked on like it would never end, there were at least twenty, and there would be no escape for her. An eternity passed, and finally the men turned away, and Alice let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. Queen's men, she was nearly sure of it.

Alice remained crouched in the doorway for a few minutes after the men in black disappeared from sight. When Alice did stand, she was biting her lip, fighting back frustrated tears. For the first time the enormity of the task she's adopted struck her. This was her grand plan? Find her way to jump back into Wonderland, check. And that was precisely where all her forethought had ended. She had no idea where to go from here.

"Settle Alice," the force of her own voice surprised her. "You can do this." She would go back to the land of the Red King. That was the most likely place for Jack to make his base. She would find allies there, and more importantly, answers. Hopefully she'd find Charlie, Jack and Hatter.

With the next phase of her journey firmly implanted in her mind, Alice started off again. A rustle in the bushes to her left halted her again almost immediately. Her hands flew to the Tonfa on her hip, whipping the weapons from her belt. "Show yourself," she ordered.

"No need for a display of force," a slow, deep voice emanated from the bush. Two hands emerged from the foliage, parting branches to reveal a short, stocky man with not even a trace of hair on his bald head. He held his hands out, palms forward, shoulders lifted in an embarrassed little shrug. "Didn't mean to surprise you my dear. Just trying to avoid all the Queen's men, as were you." The man talked so slowly he stretched words into extra syllables.

Gray eyes were half hooded and bored to the point of being dull. He shoved his hands into the waist pockets of his green three piece suit, his eyes traveling lazily up and down her length. "Such a pretty little Oyster," the odd man said, "to be wandering about all on your own."

The flesh on Alice's arms froze and she responded tightly, "Don't be ridiculous, I'm no Oyster." She hoped dearly that she sounded more confident than she felt.

"But of course you are," he argued, head cocked sideways. "An Oyster is what you look like, so that is what you are."

"And who are you, to be so certain of your opinion?"

"Well I am very old, and therefor very wise."

"You don't look very old," Alice told him. "And that really doesn't answer my question."

"I am what I look like, because that is what they call me. I am Turtle, Mock, if you please."

Alice had to clamp her teeth down on her lip to keep from giggling. Truth of the matter was that he really did resemble a turtle. He was of average height and uncommon girth, with arms and legs too short to be proportionate. His shoulders were round and more than a little hunched. Even his bald head and large beaked nose added to the appearance, his large, flabby neck looking like it could, and often did, swallow his jaw.

"So if I am an Oyster, which I'm not saying is the case, then why have I no mark, and how could I be wandering free?"

Turtle shrugged and sighed, a long suffering kind of sound. "Perhaps you stumbled here by accident after the last collection on the other side. It does happen on occasion. Or perhaps you escaped. But none of these things changes what you are, which is an Oyster."

Alice looked fleetingly at the place where the Queen's men had disappeared. "You going to turn me in then?"

It was the Turtle's turn for laughing. " I've never been a big fan of tea myself. Slows the synapses don't you know." Alice did, in a roundabout sort of way, though the idea that anything could slow this man down further was laughable. She kept that thought to herself. "No, can't see as to why I should hand you over, since that would certainly lead to my own arrest. Those blokes aren't terrible fond of resistance men."

"You're part of the Resistance?" Alice exclaimed, thrilled.

Turtle rocked back on his heels and puffed up his wide chest. "Yes indeed."

A surge of energy flowed through her, lighting her face and eyes. "Then can you tell me please, how you fare? Is it war? And if it is, who is winning?" Answers, here, right in front of her, close enough to touch.

The little man did not answer for a long time. "How do you know it is war, yet not know the state of it?" For the first time those grey eyes took better stock of her, and she was struck by their shrewdness.

Alice realized half a second too late that she was talking herself into a corner. "Well, I was here, but then I left. And now I'm back you see, but I haven't quite got the time worked out."

"You've been through the Looking Glass before?" he asked. Alice nodded, a knot winding its way into her gut. "And you've come back?" Another nod. Turtle shook his head in his own slow way. Realization dawned on his face, and he looked like his legs might not hold him. "I've only heard of one Oyster daft enough to come back, but I didn't think I'd live to see the day." Tears welled in his eyes, and he suddenly looked very sad. "The pretty girl in the very wet dress." Her stomach dropped into her knees. "You're Alice of Legend."

"No I'm not," Alice said in a tiny voice.

"He said you'd come back. He said it every day, every single day, since the day you left."

"Who said?" she asked. She needed to hear it, just his name, just once.

"Hatter of course. Should have known when I first saw you, it's just been so long." His voice drifted off, like he was dreaming.

Alice crossed the space between them and grasped his shoulders with both hands. "How long Turtle?" she demanded the answer. "How long have I been gone?"

"Why, more than two years."

It cut her at the knees, and she sank onto the ground, releasing her grip on his coat. "Two... but that's not possible. I was only gone three months. But time... it's not the same here, is it?" She looked up at him, eyes pleading for some explanation. "How does it go? What is the rule?"

"Time,' Turtle snorted. "Time my dear, is all relative. It is both irreverent and irrelevant. Never stagnant or sedentary, it is constant motion, where the past is prologue of the present future. Can't control it, only ride it. In your world three months, here, years. For you see, though we both live the same amount of time, I will be much much older than you when I die. The difference lies in the perception of the passing, not in time itself."

Mock Turtle offered his stubby hand, which Alice took. He helped lever her off the ground. Alice found her hands were trembling. She shoved them into her pockets. "But right now that is of little matter. You are here, and we must be getting on. You have the ring I take it?"

Instinctively, Alice clutched at the ring with her thumb inside her pocket, mouth clamping shut. Turtle rolled his eyes. "Well I don't want to take it, if that's what you're worried about. More trouble than it's worth if you ask me, which you didn't, but I'll tell you anyway." Alice had to admit to herself, she was inclined to agree with him. "Now that you're on this side, the Looking Glass will be shutting down soon, and the Queen will know you've come back. So we need to get to Jack post haste."

"Jack?" she still felt like she was in a daze.

"Yes. Jack Heart, man with a crown? Don't be simple girl, it doesn't suit you. Come come." He headed off, an odd lumbering gait, without waiting for Alice to answer in the affirmative or negative. After a moment's hesitation, Alice followed, for no other reason that she found going with the Mock Turtle far less intimidating than running into the Queen's goons on her own. Push came to shove, she was pretty sure she could take the little man.

He led her down a small hillock to the edge of the lake, trudging through knee deep snow drifts. The wind howled, raking through her and Alice clutched at her arms automatically. "Not to worry," Turtle told her, fishing around in a bush near the shore. "You'll be warm here soon enough. Can't get to the Red King without first crossing the lake after all."

"You have a team of sled dogs handy?" Alice queried, somewhat bitterly. "Because I'm thinking a boat's not going to cut it."

"No, something better." Turtle rose from his stoop, and displayed his prize.

"Are those skates?" Alice asked, cocking an eyebrow. She couldn't quite be sure. The blades were familiar enough, but there was no boot, only a stiff sole and a fair amount of thick leather strapping.

"Of course, what else would they be?" Turtle thrust one set at Alice and promptly heaved himself to the ground, setting to work tying the set of blades to the bottom of his shoes.

Alice ran a hand over her hair, locking her tongue down behind her teeth. She was abominable on skates, horrific. The last time she'd donned a pair she'd been ten and had wound up in the ER with a broken wrist. This was going to be interesting. Still, she sat, eyeing the exact way Turtle laced his skate and mimicked the motion. Once she had the blades strapped down as tightly as she could get them, she stood, wobbling, hands out for balance. Turtle was already on the ice, hands clasped behind his back, merrily spinning this way and that. Obviously the man's awkwardness didn't extend to the ice.

From one side of the lake to the other was not an overly long trip, by boat, but Turtle kept them tucked close to the shoreline, in case they ran into one of the Queen's scouting patrols. Following the shoreline the journey was a hair shy of two miles. To Alice's credit, she'd fallen only four times, twice almost by choice into a couple of drifts. But by the time they'd reached the opposite side of the lake her thighs ached furiously, and she'd shed her leather jacket, tying it about her waist. She collapsed in most dramatic fashion onto her back, arms splayed out, sucking in large breaths of air.

"Motor boats and jet propelled flying flamingoes you have," she gasped, "but no cars. And ice travel by medieval skates, what is that?"

"Better to live like mice in an asphalt maze?" Turtle returned what Alice had meant to be mostly a rhetorical question.

She sensed there would be no winning this argument. "Shutting up now," she told him with a nod.

They didn't tarry long on the shore, and as soon as Turtle stowed their blades, they were on their way again. The stout little man moved purposefully through the forest, and Alice followed along obediently, till she heard the all too familiar call. The Jabberwocky. She froze, head sweeping from side to side. "Turtle," she hissed. He stopped and turned, but his face remained as bored as ever. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

He came back to stand beside her shoulder. "Worried about the Jabberwocky?" Alice nodded tightly. She remembered the beast all too well, its size, its teeth, its breath. "Why, he's the resistance's first line of defense. Attacks anything that comes through these woods."

"That's the part that worries me."

Turtle chuckled, though Alice couldn't quite figure the why. Then he said, "see those stones there, the blue-gray ones?"

"Sure."

"They're a path you see, through the woods of the Jabberwocky. We're safe enough if we follow the stones."

Alice remained unconvinced. "And what makes you so sure?"

"We laid down a scent track, ten feet on either side of the stone, of the one thing the big beastie fears most. The urine of a female feline ferrying a fetus."

"It's afraid of female cat pee," Alice deadpanned, quite disbelieving what she'd heard.

"Ah ah," Turtle wagged a finger in her face. "A pregnant female cat, pregnant."

Her lips pressed into a thin line Alice nodded slowly. Hell, it made about as much sense as anything around here. "Right," she said. "On we go then."

By Alice's estimation they'd walked another 2 or 3 miles into the woods when Turtle stopped. Unprepared and lost in her own thoughts, Alice bumped into him. In front of them had appeared some ten or twelve men, all dressed in red, guns drawn. "Mock Turtle, here with an important message for Jack Heart."

"What message?" A tall, lanky man near the front questioned.

"It's a message for Heart's ears alone," Turtle barked, "not some third rate lackey guard. And I can guarantee he will be very upset with you lot if you cause us any further delay."

"And who is she?" he questioned, pointing at Alice, half hidden behind Turtle's bulk. "You know we can't be lettin just anyone through here."

"Why, she is the message."

The lanky man scowled, but turned to confer with a few of his brethren. "All right Turtle, but it's only cuz you saved my hide the other week. Don't be makin a habit of it, all right?"

Turtle risked a short glance at the girl traveling in his wake. "Oh believe me," he whispered to himself, "I couldn't repeat this feat if I tried."

It was nearly dark by the time their troop reached the outskirts of the Red King's destroyed city. Alice noted a few men in the trees, guarding the perimeter. The rest would be in cloistered near the city's center, in a defensible position. As they neared the center of the city a few small fires dotted the landscape. Men and women, dressed in little more than rags, warmed bony fingers over them. A few small, ramshackle huts had been assembled, protection from the wind and elements at least, if not offering much in the way of warmth. The people there looked poor, downtrodden, refugees in their own country. Alice's hope that the war was favoring the resistance wavered. Things were bad, maybe very bad.

Past the old King's throne, where his skeleton remained untouched, into a portion of the castle that still stood, the lanky guard led Turtle and Alice. A crowd of people huddled around a heavy wood table, but she could have picked him out of a hundred. He was thinner than she remembered, and looked much older, but she knew him. The familiar, irritatingly cute flop of hair on his forehead. He stood stooped over a sheet of paper rolled out on the table surface.

"Sir..." the lanky guard began.

Alice didn't want to wait for introductions. She marched past Turtle and slipped in front of the guard. "Jack," she breathed.

Her voice struck him like a physical blow. His shoulders stiffened and his head snapped up. Wide eyes drank in the sight of the girl he'd asked to be his queen, the girl he couldn't forget. The girl he had once loved, and probably still did. A huge, beaming smile split his face. He pushed himself away from the table. "Alice!" he exclaimed as he swept her up in a hug. She clung to his neck, not wanting the moment to end.

"Alice?" the lanky guard repeated, eyes widening into dinner plates. "As in like, Alice? The Alice of Legend?"

She had to chuckle as Jack released her, suddenly highly self conscious. "I'm gonna have a fit if people insist on calling me that."

Jack took a different tact. "Not a word of this to anyone, do you understand?" His voice rumbled with unassailable authority. The guard nodded. "Now leave us." The man was gone in an instant.

Jack slipped one arm over her shoulders and started to lead her back, deeper into the castle. Turtle slipped in behind them. "Come with me Alice, I know there are some people who will be very happy to see you."

"Charlie? Hatter?" she asked. "Are they well? Are you? What's been happening here? The Queen was imprisoned when I left, how did she get free?"

Jack was quiet, exchanging a concerned look with turtle. "One question at a time, please. My mother was imprisoned, yes, but even after the fall of the casino she remained a very powerful figure. She has many loyal subject all across Wonderland. And in the weeks after you left, the real problem came to light. We thought the casino was the Queen's only source of teas, but we were wrong. We also underestimated the people's reliance on the Oyster emotions. Even those who were sympathetic to our side, they... fell back under the tea's influence."

"Your mother has another casino?" Alice queried.

"Two others, that we know of, and that's the least of our worries. But we'll talk about that more after you've rested. Here," they paused in front of a large set of oak doors, and Jack pushed them open.

"Charlie!" Alice exclaimed happily, rushing out from under Jack's arm to embrace the graying old warrior. Shock on the old man's face turned to disbelief, and finally, joy.

"Alice!" He swept her up in his arms. "I would ask how you found your way back, but I do know you, and that would be silly. How are you?"

"Fine, but very confused." ALice told him. She looked around, hoping to see Hatter in the room as well, but the only other soul she recognized was the blonde Duchess. The beautiful woman eyed her with barely disguised distaste, lips puckering into a frown.

"I feel like I left not very long ago, and Jack was to be King and now.... Everything is different. It's been years for you all, and not nearly half that for me. I want you to tell me everything. And the first thing you can tell me is, where is Hatter? I need to see him."

Charlie's expression fell, and Jack left Duchess's side. "What?"

"Hatter is not here," Jack explained gently.

"Well then where is he?" ALice looked back and forth from man to man, but none of them would meet her gaze. Her stomach did a flip, and her mouth felt dry. "Is he dead?" No answer. "Tell me damn it."

It was Charlie, finally, who spoke. He touched her cheek with a soft hand. "Oh Alice." She felt like she might be sick. "The man you knew as Hatter is gone."

She flicked his hand away, anger burgeoning in her chest. "And what the God damn does that mean?" she snapped. "Somebody tell me what's happened to him?"

"Alice," Jack held up his hands, hoping to stem the tide of anger. "The Queen has her men in black, the suits, her strong arms. But she employs others, assassins. They've come after me more than once. She even sent one after you while you were here. You remember MAD March?"

She snorted, indignant. "Hard to forget really. But what does that matter?"

"Well, with March dead, she had to find another to take his place. And she has. her new assassin, is MAD Hatter."

--

Chapter 3

Told you I wouldn't forget him :). Hope you all like this installment. Let me know what you think!


	4. Belief in the Bottle

Chapter 4:

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and support. I'm enjoying writing this immensely, and I'm glad you enjoyed my little twist! Now, onward...

"You're lying," Alice spat out the words before she could think.

Jack stepped away from her, sliding hands deep into his pockets, crestfallen. There had been a time when she would never have questioned him, when she would have turned to him in her grief. More time had passed for her than she knew, and less between them than he would have liked.

Meanwhile, Alice's eyes spit sparks, shifting from man to man to man in front of her. "It's not true," she insisted. "It can't be, Hatter would never..."

"No," Charlie said, shaking his head sadly. "He wouldn't, not by choice. But things here, as you may well remember, are rarely as simple as they first appear."

"The man you knew is gone," Turtle agreed. "From friend to foe made by a measure of force, but never will. It was a sad day for us all when Hatter disappeared."

Feeling a bit like a scolded child, Alice calmed herself with a deep breath, reaching out to touch Jack's arm. It wasn't his fault, but the news had gutted her, and she'd lashed out. "How?" She asked, her eyes boring into pale blue depths. "I need you to tell me what happened. I've come so far, and now I've found you all, but I feel more lost than ever."

"We should find a place to sit and talk for a while," Jack conceded. "There's much to tell you, about Hatter, and everything else." When Alice nodded, Jack turned and began to lead her and the others in a single file procession through the dark bowels of the castle. This section of the interior had managed to remain largely intact. Charlie and Turtle took a pair of torches from the wall to light their way.

The Prince of Hearts, or King, or who knew now, led them into a small, low ceilinged chamber. The torchlight danced off the brick, but lit the room admirably. A low, narrow bench sat opposite of the door. Alice sat, resting her elbows on her knees, looking up at Jack expectantly. Charlie sat at her side and she felt the warmth of his hand on her shoulder. Turtle took up residence in a chair in the corner.

Jack faced away from them all, and sighed. "The situation here is much more dire than we in the Resistance first believed. Or, if Caterpillar did have any inkling to the situation, he shared it with no one else before he died. It would seem that the Queen was more aware of the actions of the Resistance than we had known, and that she began taking steps to counteract us the moment she was freed by her people."

"How?" Alice asked. "Do you mean the other tea houses?"

"In a manner of speaking yes," Jack nodded. "At first it was just a ramp up in production of more tea to feed the addiction of the people, to keep them under her thumb. But we began to notice oddities. The teas they were distributing were stronger, more addictive, but it wasn't enough. We were gaining ground, winning over the hearts and minds of the people." Jack paused, giving her a long, hard look. "You helped us do that. You, Alice of Legend, just an Oyster with a bad bit of luck, standing toe to toe against the Queen." Alice felt a flush creep up her neck. She still felt like she hadn't done much at all.

"So then what happened?" Alice questioned. "You don't seem like you're gaining ground now."

"Because we're not," Turtle interjected. "As you may have noted by the Queen's cadre of men tromping through the city."

"Alice," Charlie rolled his eyes at the short man. "Do you happen to recall exactly what kind of people the Queen started to bring back from your world?"

"Umm, no, not exactly. It was a mixed bag, young, old, men, women. Why?"

"The Queen wished to extend her power. Control of the weak willed wasn't enough. She's always been desperate to retain her title, but when the casino came down, and my father was killed, it became... more. She became obsessed with having complete control of all of Wonderland. She wants to destroy the Resistance, any voice that cries out against her tyranny. So she started building an army." Jack leveled her with a deadpan stare. "The men and women she took from your world are helping her do just that."

Confusion washed over her face, and Charlie was quick to clarify. "She used tea to placate the masses, make them weak and receptive to her rule."

"Happiness with a cork stop," Turtle agreed. "Jubilation in a jar. And then, no more than anger and hatred by the drop."

Jack continued, "The new casinos. They still manufacture the old teas, but now they have new ones. My mother has taken many from your world. Police officers, firefighters, felons, children and religious zealots alike, and there's no mistake to it. She brews bravery for her soldiers, anger and hatred for her killers. And sows confusion for them all. The wrong emotions, in the right combination, have given her an army worthy of armageddon. Men who fight without fear of dying. Men who truly _believe_ in her cause, because they drink it. And we have a rabble of untrained men, who used to hide in the darkness below the world."

Alice felt her throat tighten. The horror of it, a mindless army. Men who march to death without blinking. Facing that was a difficult pill to swallow indeed, especially for a group of people unused to feeling anything they didn't choose, like fear.

"For the way things were," Turtle piped, "we were doing quite better than expected, for a while. Hatter was quite a boon to the Resistance, what with his what not and know-how of all the more unseemly types in Wonderland. He had a finger in every pot, that one, or so it seemed."

"He found the Queen's second tea manufacturing site," Jack nodded, taking up the story. "This was nearly a year past mind. The information seemed accurate, the source one he knew to be reliable, as much as rats can be reliable. There was to be an assault upon it. We were going to destroy it, and then the last, and finally be done." Jack's shoulders sagged as he spoke, while Alice ground down on her lower lip, pulse doing the quickstep.

"Hatter led the mission," Jack finally went on. "He took twenty men." Grief waged war on Jack's face as he turned to her. "They didn't come back. Not a one. We went to look for them, but there was nothing left, just dying embers and ash... and bone."

"We thought them all dead," Charlie said, voice listless. "We mourned, and we went on with the fight. But Hatter didn't die with the rest, that wasn't the Queen's plan for him. Now there are days I think that dying might have been better for him."

Alice's chest constricted painfully. "How can you say that?"

"He is not in his right mind Alice," Turtle said gently. "He has been made to believe, and belief is a powerful thing.

"He is the Queen's man now," Jack agreed. "Matriarchal Assassin Designation: Hatter."

The hollow in Alice's chest, the one she'd felt since leaving Wonderland broadened, deepened till it felt like her whole self might fold in upon that curious, dark hole. "MAD Hatter," she murmured hollowly, mouth dry.

"Indeed."

"He's gone," tears stung at her eyes, but she willed them back. "And I never..."

Jack fixed his gaze upon Alice. "That's the reason you came back? For him?" Accusation and sadness in his voice wove together like a heavy blanket of guilt, settling upon her shoulders.

"I came... I came back for a lot of reasons," she returned stiffly, chin out in a stubborn angle. She wouldn't let him bait her into an argument, not here, not now, not That argument.

"Actually I am quite certain you will see Hatter again." The Prince's lips thinned. "But don't be fooled when you see him, and think that the hero you knew lies anywhere in the man that will be before you. Hesitation will get you killed." Jack stood abruptly, the legs of his seat scraping across the rough stones of the floor. Then he turned and was gone, striding away again into the dark.

Alice watched him until he was swallowed up in the cavernous black of the hallway. "What did he mean by that?" she queried. "That he's certain I will see him?"

"It is only a matter of time, slim and short if I don't miss my guess," Turtle began, "before the Queen realizes that you have come back to Wonderland. The Looking Glass will shut, and she will know that Alice of Legend has returned again. She will not stand for it, not after the last time."

"She'll use him against you Alice," Charlie said quietly. "Hatter, brave knight in shiny brown leather. She'll send him after you, to hunt you, because she knows how you felt about him."

"Emotion," Turtle agreed, "is something the Queen understands well, even if only in an abstract kind of way. She will send him, either to kill you or to capture you, and Jack is right, if you so much as hesitate for a hair, it will be done."

Elbows propped on her knees, Alice dropped her head into her hands, fingers weaving through her dark hair. "I... I can't..." Exhaustion, in that particular moment, seemed to hit her full in the face. She sagged in her seat.

"Oh child," Charlie's voice warmed her a little, despite everything. "Blame is a very useless thing." His hand found her shoulder and squeezed. "He'd have wanted you to be strong, he'd have wanted you to fight, because that's who you are."

Alice looked sideways at Charlie and shot him a weak smile, the left corner of her lower lip lock in her teeth. "It is what I'm good at."

"Tenacity of a pit viper," he agreed solemnly. At that, Alice even managed a chuckle. "But there is time enough for all that later," the old knight declared, rising from his seat and offering Alice his hand. She took it and rose up beside him. "Now is time for something much better," his eyes sparkled, "food and sleep. Come on." A strange calm replaced the gnawing anxiety in her gut. Charlie was right, there was nothing to be done right then. He was right too, that she would fight. If the Queen thought Alice would give up Hatter without one, well, she was just flat wrong.

On the other side of the old, crumbling castle, Duchess lit candles in her room, till it luminesced in flickering orange. A small fire burned in the stone fireplace, snatching the chill out of the air. The blonde woman shed her jacket, hanging it resolutely on her makeshift wardrobe. She regarded the hatchet hewn wood rack intently for a brief moment, hands atop her hips. Then her eyes swept to her bed, no more than a pilfered mattress covered in frayed rags on the floor, one of the only real beds in the Red King's lands. It reminded her how far she'd come from her life in the Queen's palace, and it was enough to give rise to bitter resentment. Her beautiful face twisted into something ugly.

She hated this place, hated the pathetic people living here, and hated the Queen for dividing Wonderland so that it had become necessary. But then there was Jack, the man she'd stood beside for two years that made the sacrifices worth it. They'd taken comfort in each other's arms, and each other's beds, often in the last two years, but Duchess was no fool. She had yet to reach his heart, something he kept firmly out of reach.

She'd seen his heart tonight though, the rippling emotions crashing over his face the moment that damned little Oyster girl had sauntered in. Anger, fear, heartache. The emotions flowed like a tidal wave through her body, clutching greedily at her heart. Her hands started to shake. "Damn it," she muttered, staring down at the trembling fingers that refused to submit to her mind's will to cease and desist. He would be here soon, she was nearly sure of it, and she couldn't let him see her like this.

Duchess strode over to her little, low, nightstand table and pulled open the small, hidden drawer at the bottom. Inside the tiny vials clinked together softly, the liquid inside sloshing from side to side. Hands still shaking, Duchess reached inside and pulled out the familiar aqua vial of Calm. She pressed the bottle to her lips and took a sip, squeezing her eyes shut as it burned past her lips and down her throat. It was barely a moment before her hands quieted, and her dispassionate rational aura returned.

Duchess' hand closed around the vial. One more sip was all that was left. She capped Calm and stowed it carefully away next to the others. There were boot steps in the hall, headed her way. Time to be quick. He wouldn't approve, if he knew, which is why he didn't, and why she intended to keep it that way.

Duchess made a quick assessment of the bottles remaining in her drawer. Lust was out, that was too obvious. The bottle of Love was still full, and she didn't reach for it. She couldn't fool herself into believing that he wouldn't know if she tried that. Instead she opted for Contentment. Two drops, held lightly on her tongue. Quickly, Duchess corked that bottle as well, slid the drawer back into place and stood.

She met Jack two steps inside the door. He looked sad, and guilty. The beautiful blonde offered a soft smile, sliding her hands up his neck, pulling him into a gentle kiss. His lips were at first warm and inviting, then more passionate and needing, and it was an easy thing to part them with her tongue, and deliver the tea. She kissed him again, and felt the tea do it's work, the muscles in his neck relaxing beneath her touch. Her hands slid down his neck to his chest. He already had his hands on her hips. She turned, leading him back toward her bed, where he belonged. Belief, she allowed herself a bitter smile, really was a powerful thing.

Chapter 4

I know this has taken me forever, I've been on a total writing hiatus lately. Hopefully you like it and can be patient with me!


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